2 Shot Dead In Courthouse -- One Victim Was Pregnant; Gunman Quickly Subdued

Two women, including one who was 7 months pregnant, are dead after being shot inside the King County Courthouse shortly after 9 a.m. today. A third victim, also a woman, was in surgery and in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center.

The gunman, identified as Timothy C. Blackwell, 47, was quickly subdued by jail corrections officers who were nearby. Police removed a semi-automatic handgun from him.

King County Executive Gary Locke today announced that security screening devices would be installed at one entrance of the courthouse, and perhaps two more, by tomorrow. If the devices are not at the other two entrances by morning, they could be closed temporarily, Locke said.

One victim was identified as a 25-year-old woman who was pregnant, said Larry Zalin, Harborview Medical Center spokesman. Both the woman and her unborn child were hit by bullets and both died this morning. The identity of the mother was being withheld.

Sources said Blackwell is the estranged husband of one of the victims, Susana Blackwell. The couple was involved in an annulment proceeding in Superior Court.

About a half-dozen shots were fired.

Victims shot outside courtroom

The three victims were shot while waiting outside one of several courtrooms on the west side of the courthouse's second floor. Judges, court personnel and spectators in courtrooms along the second floor hit the ground when the shooting started.

People on the scene said the victims all appeared to be shot in the head or chest.

A person in one of the nearby courtrooms said one bullet pierced a wall in that courtroom, but didn't strike anyone. The person said a judge was to hear final arguments in the annulment case involving a dispute over the Blackwells' mail-order-bride marriage.

The floor where the shootings occurred houses four or five Superior Court courtrooms where family and domestic court cases are heard.

Kirkland Police Department reports say Timothy and Susana Blackwell were married in the Philippines in March 1993.

Susana came to the U.S. on Feb. 5, 1994, and the couple lived at the Juanita Creek apartments.

Blackwell's attorney shocked

Jeffrey C. Mirsepasy, the attorney who represented Blackwell when he filed the annulment petition against his wife, described Blackwell as a "very passionate type of person " who could get "kind of worked up about things."

Mirsepasay said he was shocked by the shooting. "I never thought I knew anyone who was capable of this, including him."

In the annulment petition, Blackwell alleged he was fraudulently induced into the marriage, which had been arranged through a mail-order-bride service in Bellingham.

Mirsepasy said Blackwell's petition alleges that when Susana Blackwell arrived in this country, she spent only a short time at his Kirkland apartment before she left.

Blackwell alleged she left to live with someone else. On Feb. 17, 1994, according to police records, the couple argued after Susana used Timothy's computer to write a letter home. When she began to cry, he ordered her to wash her face; instead, she wiped her tears with a towel.

She told police he put his arms around her throat, pulled her head back by grabbing her hair and pushed her face into a sink, she told police. He told police he was helping her wash her face.

He was charged with misdemeanor domestic assault, but the case was dismissed June 29, 1994.

In her statement to police, Susana said she wanted to go back to the Philippines. She said Timothy told her she had to stay in the U.S. for two years and pay him $500 a month to repay the $10,000 he'd spent to marry her.

About three weeks ago, Susana Blackwell called Ward Urion, a domestic violence expert at Northeast District Court in Redmond.

"I remember she was concerned for her safety," Urion said today. "She wanted to talk about protective order options."

Urion said he advised her to seek a protective order through the King County Superior Court, where her divorce action was pending. There is no record of her actually seeking a protective order.

Urion said Susana Blackwell told him her husband wanted her back. He confirmed that she was a mail-order bride from the Philippines.

Superior Court Judge Nancy Ann Holman said she and other judges had been working to improve courthouse security but believed they had been stymied by the Metropolitan King County Council, which she said repeatedly brought up procedural reasons why it couldn't be done.

"We've been working on this so long, and we keep saying it's going to take some horrible thing," she said.

Dangerous building?

Presiding Judge Anne Ellington quickly asked the other judges not to speak to the media about the shooting, but one judge said, "This was totally predictable and inevitable. This is the most dangerous building to work in in the county."

Metal detectors have been in use at various locations in the building, primarily in courthouse hallways near high-profile trials.

Attorneys and other parties arriving for court activities today were greeted by hand-lettered signs taped to walls informing them that the courthouse was closed.

Ellington called all judges and court personnel together 90 minutes after the shooting and announced all court proceedings were suspended for the day. She also said counseling would be provided for anyone who needs it. Ellington said she would be meeting with the Metropolitan King County Council and County Executive Locke later today. "There are a number of questions."

Seattle Times staff reporters Duff Wilson, Dee Norton, Katherine Long, Diedtra Henderson, Jack Broom, Susan Byrnes and Himanee Gupta contributed to this report